Other Half Brewing Thread (March 2016)

Honest to God, can't remember bottle sharing in line being covered at all...

 

Half the people will tell you it's cool, half the people will tell you that by opening a bottle outdoors you're bringing the wrath of 1000 hells upon yourself and the entire beer community. Drinking outdoors was just decriminalized, not to say that the police ever cared. Just don't get hammered and make a mess and you're fine.

 

Count me in as another person who stopped going to can releases even before the Street Green release.

I don't understand why not only people tolerate 4+ hour waits for beer, but the attitude that your cred as a craft beer fan is directly proportional to how long you're willing to wait in line.

Analogy - when I was a teenager, if you wanted to go to a concert you needed to camp out at the Ticketmaster counter overnight outside of Hecht's (aka Macy's) if you wanted to have a chance at getting tickets. Now, everyone misses out on tickets online, resellers get the majority of the tickets, and Ticketmaster charges ridiculous fees, but have you ever heard *anyone* wish for those old days of waiting in line again, giving up a huge chunk of your day?

 

Some of these posts remind me of the immortal Yogi Berra.

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

 

To be clear for the out-of-towners, although public drinking was "decriminalized" last week, you're still not permitted to drink in public. All that decriminalization means is that in most cases the cops aren't going to arrest you, but you can still get hit with a summons and fine. So proceed at your own risk.

 

I've never heard of anyone getting arrested for drinking in public in NYC, ever. They don't arrest you for an open container violation. You get an appearance ticket with a fine. Public intoxication is a different thing.

 

The cops generally do not care. They have bigger fish to fry. Just don't be a dick about it, clean up after yourself, and don't get overly hammered and you're fine. I will probably be shunned and flamed with the hammers of hell for saying it but it's the truth.

 

As far as the line drinking is concerned, there are some residential houses along the line route. That said, how would you like it if a bunch of people were drinking in front of your house at 8/9am? Being respectful or not. Just putting this out there for anyone that does this. I don't live there so quite frankly I don't care but I also wouldn't do it.

 

If they were being respectful and kept it to a low roar, I don't think it would bother me all that much.

The things that irk me about the bottle shares on line are when people don't clean up or when people get behind the wheel after some beers. I obviously can't confirm the latter, but it's always a thought while I'm waiting on line.

At this point in time the legality of it doesn't concern me. I've seen enough cops drive or walk past the line and do absolutely nothing about the bottle shares to relax my fears.

Having said that: it should be noted that the public drinking decriminalization applies to Manhattan only, not Brooklyn.

 

Happy Equinox, y'all.

 

Wow, an argument (with curses I may add!) that didn't involve me? I'm shocked.

I do agree that OH lines move way too slow. That's why I stopped going. I haven't been to a release in months because I have much better things to do with my time then wait in line for 4-5 hours.

I was at HF this Thursday, a day after they release E. (which is regarded as one of their top 10 beers by locals I talked to) and had Double Citra (another of their best beers) on tap. I was in and out with 5 growlers, several bottles, and two glasses of beer in 30 minutes. Yes I get it - HF is in the middle of fucking nowhere, but even super-hyped, elite breweries like HF have systems in place to limit lines and make the transaction as soon as possible.

 

Last weekend was my first visit to OH since they've stopped sending the line through the tasting room and I thought it was way more efficient. Maybe it was a byproduct of that specific release but I thought it went much smoother. Still a wait but I was almost to the corner before the doors opened, got my cans, took them to the car on centre, went back to fill a growler, have a beer and was out by 11:15.

This past summer at HF, on the other hand... I was ticket #76 and waited well over 3 hours for our bottles and growlers. Really wasn't a positive experience at all, considering the limit of 4 2oz pours during the wait.

 

Thats tough, as a BA I'd probably join them

 

I grew up in the city back before it was what it is today. There were people drinking in public with regularity, among other far worse things. It isn't like OH is located on Sutton place. There are people hanging out in that Mcdonalds parking lot doing a lot worse than drinking on the regular. If the line drinkers don't get obnoxious I would not care about it if I lived there. If they litter, that's another story. That block is gross enough already with all the dumpsters and stray cats and what not.

 

But you do "work" there. Or at least "volunteer" there on canning days. Which you constantly remind everyone with all of your "X is tasting mighty right off the canning line" type posts the day before every release.

So while you may not be an employee, you are involved with OH. I agree that hearing it from consumers is probably more valuable, but what's stopping you from being a bit of a voice/middle man?

 

Come on, he cant be one of the cool kids if he's making waves over there.

 

What are we children? @Kanger has done a ton for this thread and the information he provide us with is invaluable. He is our ONLY line of insight into Other Half. There is no reason to jump on his back because he will not do the dirty work of complaining to Other Half for a whole internet forum.

This thread has really derailed and is kind of embarrassing.

 

It's kind of par for the course, no? Only question is how soon in any given month things go off the rails.

 

Don't worry, on Saturday we'll go back to talking about The Line and its inhabitants.

Oh wait.